Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here was published in Ballarat star, 3 January 1871, p. 2, where it was introduced by 'The following is the substance of a recent communication from Professor Petermann to Herr von Mueller:—' The item was reprinted in Border watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 14 January 1871.

The letter is dated to November 1870, as the latest that it could have been written to be available in Melbourne at the beginning of 1871.

[Three important results were attained by the Polar expedition fitted out in Germany by private subscriptions under the guidance of Professor Aug. Petermann, of Gotha.

2

See M to A. Petermann, 9 October 1869.

The discovery of mountains 14,000 ft. high near deep inland fiords of East Greenland, a discovery which renders this expedition the most important geographic one of 1870. The fact of the existence of these high mountains seems extraordinary when it is remembered that Eric the Red founded the settlements of Greenland nearly 900 years ago. We have thus a counterpart to the Antarctic high mountains discovered by Sir James Ross, Mount Erebus and Mount Terror. The second great discovery is that of additional immense coal-layers, notifying a once far warmer climate. These coal-beds may not only become very important for local consumption, but may bring about, together with the abundance of game and fish, a new commercial traffic from East Greenland. Then, thirdly, it would appear as if now a landroad was open towards the North pole as a basis of operations for the great physical researches for which it is so important that the pole itself should be reached.]